Italy
Naples
Does gelato history still produce the world’s strongest city today?
Naples' claim rests on one exceptional, thoroughly documented case rather than on breadth: Gelateria Al Polo Nord has made gelato and spumone by hand in Forcella since 1931, is now run by a fourth-generation Antonio Raio who refuses ready-made bases, and was given a special professional-merit recognition in Venice in March 2022 for holding that standard across four generations. But the city's reputation does not hold up as a whole under national specialist scrutiny. Gambero Rosso's Gelaterie d'Italia guide — the country's most cited annual gelato ranking — awarded its top Tre Coni rating to seventy gelaterie in 2024 and named none inside the comune of Napoli; the same held in 2025. Both editions' Campania entries sit in Torchiara, in Salerno, and in Vico Equense on the Sorrento peninsula, outside the boundary this project applies. For comparison, the 2024 list names seven in Turin, six in Milan, five in Rome and three in Bologna. One of the city's other storied historic houses, the 87-year-old Gelateria della Scimmia on Piazza Carità, closed for good in 2020. A younger generation — Fantasia Gelati since 1994, Casa Infante more recently — has picked up its own competition placings, but on the evidence gathered here Naples reads as a city with one outstanding, well-attested address and a much thinner layer beneath it than its reputation implies.
Last checked 2026-08-21
The selected spots
5 selected
- 01
Gelateria Al Polo Nord 1931
gelato · Antonio Raio, fourth-generation owner and gelatiere; founded by his great-grandfather Antonio Raio in 1931
This is the most thoroughly, independently documented gelato history found for the comune of Naples: three separately authored, dated sources corroborate the same founding year, family lineage, address and production method, with direct quotes from the current maker rather than marketing copy.
- 02
Fantasia Gelati
gelato · Mario Amicarelli, founder
A 30-year, family-run Naples house with two named national competition results (a World Gelato Cup win and two Cono d'Oro awards) confirmed in a dated, named-author specialist article — a stronger competition record than most candidates found in this cohort.
- 03
Gelateria Bilancione
gelato · Founded by brothers Enzo and Pietro Bilancione; current maker/owner not named in any source opened
One of the few Naples gelaterias with an independently confirmed founding date, founder names and address from a dated news source, rather than only business-directory or listicle mentions.
- 04
Casa Infante
gelato · Marco Infante and his brother Fabio, third generation of the Infante family (grandfather Leopoldo founded the family's tarallo/pastry business; father Patrizio expanded it into pastry)
A genuine family-lineage story (taralli to pastry to gelato across three generations) with two independent sources agreeing on the founder, family history and flavour identity, though none of them states the exact opening year.
- 05
Chalet Ciro
gelato · Antonio De Martino, grandson of the founder
A seafront kiosk on Via Caracciolo since 1952, run by the founder's grandson, serving up to two thousand people a day a gelato deliberately richer than the northern Italian style — in a cone modelled on the fried Neapolitan graffa. It is the most Neapolitan thing in this guide and nothing else in the cohort resembles it.
Research notes
City boundary
The comune of Napoli. The Amalfi Coast and wider Campania are separate.